Enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is a distinct honor to many in the basketball world, no matter how ridiculous and arbitrary the criteria for inclusion seem to be. With that in mind, here are the candidates for the Hall of Fame class of 2012, as announced by press conference on Friday:

Reggie Miller

Mo Cheeks

Don Nelson

Bernard King

Bill Fitch

Don Nelson

Hank Nichols

Rick Pitino

Jamaal Wikes

Ralph Sampson

Katrina McClain

All-American Red Heads

Regardless of the fate of these individual candidates, don’t let your feathers get too ruffled; we’ve all already wasted more than enough time trying to decipher the Hall’s baffling guidelines. There are plentiful examples of worthy players who were excluded for no reason whatsoever, and just as many cases in which a seemingly undeserving player was ushered in with a raised eyebrow.

But if you can find legitimacy in the somewhat inexplicable directives of Hall of Fame voters, then feel free to parse this list and display your nodding approval, insistent outrage, or overall contentment.

Ralph Sampson, the former star NBA player that was part of the original “twin towers” with Hakeem Olajuwon, has been arrested concerning issues of child support, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Sampson had his driver’s license suspended after failure to make payments, reports the paper. He had been pulled over just outside Atlanta after an officer saw the registration on his car had lapsed.

Sampson is now out of jail and denied all charges in an email to the paper (hat tip to I am a GM).

“My license was not suspended for failure to meet child support obligations of any kind,” he said in an email sent Wednesday afternoon to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution….

“This issue had nothing to do with child support,” he reiterated in the email. He said the suspension was “due to the non-payment of a $35 reinstatement fee.”

You can guess what the police said about arresting him on mistaken charges.

Sampson, at 7’4”, was the dominant college player in the nation his final year at Virginia. He was drafted No. 1 overall by the Houston Rockets and was key to the Rockets team that advanced to the NBA finals in 1985-86 (they lost to the Boston Celtics there). He played nine NBA seasons and made the All-Star team four times.

We complained that Reggie Miller was not on the list — have a discussion if he should be in the Naismith Hall of Fame if you want, he was a bit one-dimensional, but not to be on the final ballot is a travesty — still that should not taking away from the people that make the list.

Dennis Rodman — arguably the greatest rebounder the game has ever seen and a defensive force with a handful of championship rings — heads the list. He’s a guy that should be in any legitimate hoops hall of fame for what he did on the court, but his off-the-court antics and reputation will make it interesting to see if he gets the votes.

Also making the final 12 are Chris Mullin; UCLA legend and four-time NBA champion Jamaal “Silk” Wilkes (he could get in for that 20-foot “layup” he knocked down from the baseline with his elbow flared out for years); Tex Winter (the inventor of the triangle office and a coaching legend); Ralph Sampson; Teresa Edwards (a five-time Olympian); Tara VanDerveer (Stanford’s women’s coach); Dick Motta; Herb Magee (Philadelphia University coach); Hank Nichols (college referee); and Al Attles, assistant general manager of the Golden State Warriors.

One shouldn’t have any problem with that group.

Do I have an issue that Ralph Sampson is a finalist but Reggie Miller did not? Now we’re getting somewhere? And we don’t know who the people on the committee are. Very transparent.

The issue is with the setup of the Hall of Fame itself — how do you compare what VanDerveer does to what Mullin or Wilkes did? Sure, it is all basketball, but not to have separate Hall of Fames — or at least separate wings with separate voting processes — it all seems a muddled mess. Or, you could just start an NBA only Hall of Fame… hello, David Stern?